This is an anonymous poll about your current financial situation. Where the question uses “I”, you can substitute “we” for your household or family unit or whatever financially-pooled collective you consider to be “you”.
Yes, please. (I take paypal.)
Need? No. Want? Yes!
I concur!
Need? Oh, yes. Most definitely.
Yes. I need my roof re-shingled. I’m still suffering in 2010 from being unemployed for most of 2009. At this rate I don’t think I’ll ever recover.
To the OP:
You forgot “I’m currently keeping my head above the water, but I could definitely use the extra cash.”
This. Were it not for the enormous pile of debt (ugh… why didn’t we just elope!?), we would have far, far more than we need and would be saving up for a kid at this point.
I am temporarily in the bottom category, due to legal fees and a wonky transomission. Normally I am in the middle.
Need to what?
…maintain my current lifestyle?
…be happy?
…merely survive?
…take over the world?
I think even the person in the top response category will “want” more money. It’s not an interesting results if everyone says they want more money.
Why do you need to take over the world? Or is that something you “want”?
Why do you need to maintain your current lifestyle? Or is it more accurate to say that is something you “want”?
Happiness is a state of mind which you have control over, to some degree. A lot of times, you don’t need much to “be happy”.
Need? No. <knocks wood> In fact I should be supporting third world orphans or something.
Want? Hell yes!
Unemployed with unemployment running out next month. Yes, bottom category for me right now.
Let’s put it this way: thank goddess for the job I just started.
Was out of work for about two years before I landed the job I’m currently at. Mr. Horseshoe lost his job about six months after I did, was out of work for over two years, and has only as of last week gotten some part-time retail work. Our respective unemployment benefits ran out a long, long time ago. Then our meager little pile of savings did, too.
We are carrying so *fucking *much debt right now from that. I honestly don’t know how, or if, we’ll ever recover. We even had scraped together some savings before the layoffs, had been planning to get married and buy a house. Now that’s all gone, and then some. It’s not like I ran up the credit card buying shoes or anything - just groceries, gas for the car to drive to yet another job interview, etc. etc. We never did anything wrong, just got laid off - and Mr. Horseshoe survived three goddamn rounds of layoffs before getting the axe, so it’s not like the company was waiting to get rid of him. I work with the Other Shoe’s former boss’s wife, and apparently, to this day, he talks about how much he’d like Other Shoe back on his team.
I voted for the middle one, because I hesitated over the word “significantly” for the choice above it. I save 20% of my salary, pay my bills, and have enough left over to have some occasional fun. On the other hand, if I were to buy a new car, I’d need a loan.
I’m struggling. My partner has had to take on more of the things I used to pay for, like all the groceries and costs for any entertainment. I pay my bills and have about $100 to last me two weeks, and about $50 of that goes to gas. Without my partner I’d be really hurting.
I make much more than I need, though I am paying off debt accrued when I made much less than I need. But next year I’m quitting my job and going back to school on the other side of the country, so I guess what I “need” is a lot more than I have.
just ended 6 difficult months of scraping by through increased debt. Got a nice payday and am digging out and can breath easier for next 4 to 6 months. Hope to get all out of debt and start saving soon…
I have enough for my needs, but there’s the wants, you know? I could live on a hell of a lot less - many people do.